The Dark Heart: The Attack Above Numia
COSG: The Dark Heart Chapter 9: The Ambush Above Numia Episode Body The Aetherius sailed along, through the Terminus Systems and into the forgotten edges of the Milky Way galaxy. Since Altakiril, things had been quite, no relays meant much, much slower travel… It had been nearly a week since they left the pirate dominated world, since the maniacal bar fight. The were no more issues, or fights between members of the crew, Taylor and Saelian remained distant, though the aggression between them had ceased, Iyra avoiding Taylor...and feelings, most of the time, Rhoen kept on being Rhoen, and Erinn and Eliae’s long nights and lack of sleep were finally catching up to them…. The bridge was tranquil, the reverse from its typical two man jabberfest, as Eliae was deathly still in his post, a lifeless look in those already dark eyes, staring into the void that was space. Erinn sat, leaning over his station, head on his folded arms, completely asleep. Eliae was weary, he didn’t even notice the footsteps coming behind him. “Guys..” A man’s voice reached out, “Eliaeee…” again, but the drell was so zoned out he still didn’t take notice, “Eliae!” one more time, a little louder and shove on his shoulder Eliae snapped out of it. He blinked, dropping out of the state he was in, he shook his head, an attempt to wake himself up, and he looked back. There stood the ever lanky, ever whiny, bleach blonde haired Connor Clark, the Aetherius’s navigations ‘expert’. Eliae wasn’t fond of him, he complained, and never seemed to be on the bridge when he was supposed to be. “Huh. Oh.” Eliae muttered as fluttered his tired eyes. “Finally showing up to do your job Connor?” The navigator scoffed and rolled his eyes, “I’ll have you know, I spent the past few hours down in maintenance doing-” “Yeah yeah.” Eliae interrupted him, he really didn’t care, “Just let me what’s the ETA on Numia.” Conner snarled and looked to his terminal, “Should be in view of the planet within a half hour.” “Better start waking people up.” Eliae muttered as he gave Erinn a little shove, “Erinn!” He didn’t wake so he shoved him again. “Erinn man!” Erinn muttered under his breath, still asleep he spoke from his dream, “nah baby, keep the eye patch on, I like it that way.” With a deeply concerned and slightly worried look on his face, Eliae shook his unconscious friend, “What are you talking about?!” He finally woke up, shooting his head up, his red eyes large and open as he traced around the room, “Huh?” “Were you…..dreaming about someone with a patch eye?” Eliae asked as both he and Connor shot prying looks at him. Looking around and wincing from the exhaustion, he shook his head adamantly, “No. I don’t know what you’re talkin about man.” “You were talking about ya baby, with an eyepatch man.” Erinn just shook his in disagreement more. “Whatever.” Eliae was too tired to chastise his friend. “Hey connor, can you pleaase get me a coffee...dark, extra sugar pleaaase.” Connor’s expression seemed to reject the idea, “You’re going to insult me and then have the audacity to ask me to get you coffee?” “Uh yeah.” Eliae smart mouthed out, “I can’t leave the bridge man you know that.” The navigator snarled under his breath, “Fine.” As he left the helm, Erinn blurted out too, “Yeah I need one to Connor please.” The first words he ever spoke to the navigator. Connor mumbled under his breath again as he faded down into the hallway. “Man that guy is a pushover isn’t he?” “Absolutely. Dudes the worst.” The drell wasn’t the most fond of Connor, but he had his uses, “At least he’s so spineless to the point he’ll fetch you coffee immediately after shit talking him.” He paused for a moment, before looking back to Erinn once more, “Seriously were you talking about banging a girl with an eyepatch in your sleep man?” “.....No.” Erinn again tried to drop the subject, but from his peripheral, the sight of Eliae glaring at him wore him down. “Okay, so what if I like anime girls with eye patches.” Eliae shook his head in disappointment, with the corner of his mouth tucked in. “Man, you are a weeaboo. I knew it.” “You know what anime culture is in now!” Erinn blasted out, defending himself, “So when you use the word “Weeaboo” derogatorily, you’re the one that’s being a zeitgeist.” “Shut up you giant nerd!” Eliae yelped back as he continued to badger his friend. And Erinn just rolled his eyes and sighed, giving up on the challenge. The captain approached, marching to his command post above the helm, he leaned on his console. “Goodmorning gentlemen. What’s our status?” “ETA is within the next 30 minutes captain.” Eliae disclosed. “Good. Take us in slow, we’re in no rush.” Kasper ordered, the crew was still largely asleep, and it had been a long journey. “Find us a good LZ, we’re going to be planetside for some time I feel like.” Numia was now in sight, the small, lush green garden world, decorated with several small oceans, but was mostly jungle. Eliae wasn’t the most excited for the clammy surface, “Great. All that humidity.” “Don’t fishes like water?” Erinn asked, taking the chance to get back at the drell. “I’m not a fucking fish!” He snapped back. Kasper leaned back over his railing and joined in on Eliae, “Cut it out fishlips, don’t be so soft.” “Hurhurhur” Eliae mocked them, as he tried to act not entirely offended by the joke. “Like I haven’t heard that a thousand times.” “You should be used to it then.” Said Erinn. Eliae gave a roll of his eyes as they approached Numia, “Where the Hell is Connor?” The navigator was hustling back to the bridge, the drinks in hand for Erinn and Eliae. “I was getting your stupid coffee.” “Awh thanks buddy.” Eliae replied with a fabricated friendly voice as he took his coffee from Connor. “Connor you should be at your post when we’re this close to landing.” Kasper scolded his crew member, it was a common practice on the helm to mess with the navigator. The navigator, as it usually went, clammed up and started following his Captain’s orders, “Uh yes sir. Sorry sir.” “And next time get me a coffee too.” Kasper added with a smirk. “And give me an update on our landing situation, what have you got over there?’ “Yes sir.” He sat down at his terminal, began a preliminary scan of the planet and the space around it. “It’s going to take some time, we don’t have a navpoint this time, or really anything.” Eliae poked the navigator once again, “Maybe if you were good at your job man…” He laughed under his breath, but then pressed the Captain, in regards to the issue, “But seriously cap, we’re just going to be operating blind down there, we’re expected to canvas this whole damn planet?” It sounded like a daunting task, the team didn’t know the location of the Dark Heart, they just had to hope the researchers were adequate enough at their job to locate it. “It might take a few days, weeks, but we’ve got time, and we’re making a lot of credits. So I don’t want to hear any dissent Eliae.” The drell pilot shifted his eyebrows and muttered out a disheartened reply, “Aye aye captain.” A concerned look flashed across Connor’s face, he took a better look at his terminal. “Captain, something’s making noise out there.” “From the planet?” “Negative, from our immediate vicinity.” Connor replied, seemingly becoming more worried about what it was. Eliae peered around in the open space around him, “No visuals in front of us. Nothing out here, get us some other views.” “It’s not constant, it’s just interference, every 30, 45 seconds.” Connor added as he kept running scans, “Somethings out here.” Erinn joined in, the thought of something else being around gave him slight anxiety, so he shot out doubt in hopes that it would calm it, “What the Hell would be this far out? That doesn’t make any sense.” Still scouring the view Eliae couldn’t see anything, just the planet, the stern, portside, and starboard visuals were empty. “Nothing out here. Must be something coming from a dust cloud or some shit.” Suddenly, a subtle change in the view, something caught his eye, as if emerging from nothing he saw shine of a ship. It’s became more and more clear almost forming from pixels, a stealth system disengaging, revealing a vast, elongated cruiser. It was grey, menacing as it peered forward, the cannons along its sides seemed prime, and its main gun pointed straight for the Aetherius, the cruiser almost stalked along the side of the vessel. “Ship! Ship! We got a ship!” “What the Hell is that?!” Kasper stared forward, a locked, grim expression on his face as he leaned on his console. He observed the vessel, no symbols, nothing, but it wasn’t a pirate ship, or a mercenary ship, too sophisticated. “They’re scanning us!” Connor informed as he panicked. Kasper’s demeanor remained focus, “Scan them back.” Erinn blitzed to try and raise whoever it was on the comms, but they didn’t respond, “I’m trying to hail them, they’re ignoring us!” The Captain’s poise started to alter, his breathing was becoming heavy as he speculated to what was going on. Erinn could be seen planted at his chair, sweating, a gulp of pure nerves being swallowed in his threat, Eliae had his hands on the controls, focused on the ship. The Aetherius didn’t have the capability to outmaneuver whatever this ship was. Connor’s eyes grew wide and his heart sank, “They’re targeting us!” He yelled out in a petrified tone. The opposing ship’s pulse cannons grew bright, as the energy swarmed around them Kasper reacted, “Set off the alarms! All hands to the escape pods!” They could feel it, the guns building up power, and abruptly, they BLASTED out beams of energy, directly at the Aetherius. The shots jolted the entire ship violently, Erinn was knocked from his seat, Kasper nearly tipped over but latched onto the railing of his command post. He punched the alarm as sparks rained down, the alerts exploded throughout the ship, as Kasper initiated the com system. “ALL HANDS TO THE ESCAPE PODS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!” He looked to Connor scrambling on his flickering console, “Damage report?!” “Hangar Bay and storage has been breached! Our supplies are all over space right now!” Down in the 2nd deck, the ship still rumbled violently, as several more shots of energy peppered the undercarriage of the Aetherius. Iyra stammered through the corridor as each blast knocked into the walls of the vessel. It was pure panic and dread running through her body, the alarms were buzzing so loud it echoed into her skull, she was pushing through back down to her quarters to make sure Giles and Adam were moving. She stumbled into the engine room as her startled subordinates hustled to get their gear together. “What’s going on Iyra?!” Giles sweated out. “I don’t know, we’re under attack!” “By what?!” Adam asked, his eyes wide with worry. “I don’t know but we need to move!” Iyra commanded, but another shot shook the vessel, and she could feel it, directly beneath her, within the undercarriage of the ship. She could almost hear it, the metal tearing the vibrations, and everything she ever heard about human ships went rushing through her head. Target the storage, take out the engines. She froze realizing what was happening, her eyes dilated, and it seemed like everything paused. “GET OU-” Before she could issue her urgent warning another pulse POUNDED the ship, this time, the engines just as she feared. The shot caused a chain reaction, and the turbine paid the price, the eruption ENGULFED the crew quarter of the engine room. It sent bulleted into the wall, her quick reaction managing to pull that barrier around her body, stopping the flames but hitting the wall blasted the wind out of her as she dropped to the floor with a THUD. A piercing ring rang through her ear as she pushed her body, through the pain, up onto her hands and knees. Everything was blurry, cloudy, the sweat and blood dripped down her, she could feel burning heat almost touching her, faded lights, flashing, and flickering broke through the faded view. The muffled sound of her breath balanced out, the blur slowly faded, everything paced back and to her horror she saw the chaos. The turbine and half the room was consumed by fire, sparks glittered down from the busted wiring and components, and there, on the damaged floor lied Giles and Adam. Burns covered parts of their shrapnel spattered bodies and the light pools of blood dotted the ground. She dragged herself over, through the pain, the smoke forcing struggled coughs from her lungs. She hopelessly jostled with Adam’s shoulder, “Adam! Adam!” There was no hope, he was gone, and grabbed a hold of Giles’s leg, the same… “Ah..ah!” she stammered out, wincing from the pain, a thousand thoughts running through her head, she hoisted herself off of her arms and onto her knees. The fire had expanded now, blocking her only way out, she threw her arms back, igniting with biotic energy, and forced them forward, discharging a blast of bitoic energy and dispersing just enough of the flames to clear a way out. With a renewed sense of urgency in her legs she stumbled to her burnt mattress, reaching behind digging out a long, shining, asari sword. She looked into her reflection of the sword, several small cuts dotted her face, the blood leaked out and dirty and ash polished off the rest of her expression. She sheathed her sword, reaching into her tank top to look at her tags, “what would he do.” she thought to herself before ripping and old black leather jacket from behind the bunk. She threw it on, the white and red N7 logo just above the breast, and she bolted for the door, taking one final look at her friends. Bolting up into the chaotic crew quarters Iyra faced another hectic scene, as the crew rushed passed her up towards deck 1, the light flickering, some blew out as the ship continued to rumble. And then she saw Abigail, frantically pushing ahead towards the stairs she called out to her friend, “Abbi!”. “Iyra!” Abigail answered back, elated to see her friend as she dashed over and hugged her, before pulling away to look the asari up and down, aggrieved by her battered state, “Oh my god, what happened? Are you okay?!” Everything was just superficial, “I’m okay, but we need to get to the lifeboats!” Abigail’s nerves were rocking hair, she couldn’t think, just couldn’t understand, “Who is attacking us, what is going on, just why?!” Iyra grabbed onto her friend and held her still in an attempt to calm, “I don’t know, but we need to move. Just stay with me, we’re going to be okay!” She took a glance around, some more crew members ran by, no sign of Taylor, or Saelian, or even Rhoen, “We just need to find the others and get to the lifeboats.” “Negative!” Lance’s voice barked out as he marched towards them, “Kasper wants you to the lifeboats now, I’ll get my team.” Iyra looked to step up and defy that order but Lance looked back as he shot past them and headed towards the crew quarter corridors, “Go! It’s an order.” She froze for a moment, but shot Lance and nodded and pulled Abigail along with her as she headed for the stairwell. Lance continued on his way, barking out orders at the remaining crew to hustle to the lifeboats before he reached Saelian and Rhoen’s room. The two were rushing to equip their hardsuits. “Get topside now! Lifeboats won’t be here forever.” “Aye aye sir!” Saelian replied calmly, equipping his helmet. Rhoen stopped Lance before he could dart out, “What’s going on?” “An attack Rhoen, we need to move though. Get you big ass down there.” The former alliance officer order as he gave the krogan a tough shove. “Don’t wait up, I need to find Taylor.” Saelian grabbed Rhoen’s arm, the krogan was still, he wanted to wait, get everyone else together, he wasn’t interested in leaving the others behind, just in case. “Come on Rhoen, we gotta move.” He grunted, and followed Saelian out of the room into the corridor, but a piercing shot of sound echoed, and suddenly the corridor doors slammed shut, in front and behind them, they were sealed in. “What the shit is this?!” “There’s a breach.” Saelian replied, looking around the room, he felt the maglocks in his hardsuit activate, a precaution, they hadn’t lost gravity, but something was happening. “It’s depressurizing, we should be out of here in a minute, just have to hang on.” Eliae, Erinn, Connor and the Captain had bailed from the helm, rushing to the escape pods as the first members of the crew arrived, filing in. Kasper opened the first pod and motioned to the three, “Get in!” Connor wasted no time, frantically crawling in, but Eliae was hesitant, showing some spine he wasn’t well known for, “What about you sir! I can’t just leave you here!” “I’m not leaving before the rest of the crew Eliae, get groundside and get to safety, we’ve diverted all power into our remaining turbine, autopilot has us moving straight for Numia, it’s gravity will bring you all to its surface.” He ordered his pilot as he pushed him towards the open escape pod door, “We can’t be marooned in space, so go. I’ll find you on the ground.” Erinn pulled on Eliae’s shoulder, beckoning him to get into the pod, “Come on man, let’s go.” The pilot finally pulled away, buckling into his seat and looking to his captain once more before the door sealed shut, and the pod jettisoned out from the ship. As he descended away, he could see it, small explosions rocking his baby, as it shrank in size the further he fell. Iyra and Abigail reached the pods, Kasper showed no change in his strained demeanor at the sight of the two. “Iyra! Where’s Giles? Adam?”. The XO just shook her head in despair, a clear answer for the captain, he sighed, “I need you on a pod now.” “I’m not leaving you here!” “I am not having this argument with everyone on the ship.” He hustled a few more crew members into pods as he bickered with Iyra, “You’re my XO, if anything happens to me, I need you groundside to rally the troops. Use the transmitters to locate everyone. But I need you off this ship now Iyra.” She went to speak up but he just pointed his finger at her, “It’s an order.” “Aye aye Captain…” Iyra muttered out reluctantly as she and Abigail climbed into the escape pod. Quell and Kiara came rushing in just in time as Iyra sealed the door, and launched the pod. It shook violently as it departed the ship, outside the viewing window Iyra could see another pod that launched almost simultaneously. Kiara was shaking in her seat, “We’re not going to die out here, are we?!” Iyra grabbed shoulder firmly, “We’re going to be okay.” Just then she witnessed the other pod get clipped with a shot, bursting in space, surely killing everyone onboard. It jolted the four in the escape pod, and Quell let out a shriek. “Hang on!” Iyra ordered, “We’re going to be okay!” Saelian and Rhoen still awaited the depressurization process. Through the door descending down the corridor, Saelian could see Lance and Taylor approaching, the former starting the override process to open the door. The turian gave Rhoen a nudge to point out the two, but just, another blast rocked the ship, knocking Saelian to the floor, and forcing Rhoen to a stumble. “Shit…” The krogan croaked out, as he helped Saelian to his feet and pointed to the door. On the other side was now just debris, space, and chunks of the Aetherius, Lance, and Taylor, were both gone… “No.” Saelian stuttered out, “No.” Just like that they were gone, all the thoughts about the attack, his friends, the crew, flooded through his head, now he lost Lance, and even Taylor, who was beginning to grow on him. He clinched his fist and gulped down his nerves, just as the door into the lounge finally opened, “We need to go!” The two bolted from the hallway and into the disheveled, ghostly, vacant, crew lounge and up into the stairwell, leading to deck one. They had to be one of the few remaining as they headed for the escape pods, to see Kasper awaiting them, three more pods in place. He rushed them towards the pods. “You two, where’s Lance and the others?” Kasper questioned. “Gone.” Saelian dejectedly answered, looking away, “Ship got hit, it spaced them sir.” The Captain muttered under his breath, “damn it. Well get in, and get planetside, we’ll regroup there.” “What about you?!” Rhoen probed his Captain. He once again pointed to the escape pod, “I’m waiting on Roy and the others, I won’t leave until everyone is off the ship. Do not argue with me.” “Yes sir!” Saelian barked out as he and Rhoen climbed into the pod, only one other crew member was in there, and due to the size of Rhoen no more were fitting. The turian slammed the door shut and launched the pod. Kasper looked forward, he was dying to get off, despite this being his ship, he had no intentions to die on it. In fact, he was half considering getting in the pod as it seemed the doctors weren’t coming. But just then, Olassia and Roy rounded the corner, supplies in hand as one of the guards escorted them, Roy had the asari by the hand as they ran towards the captain. “We’re here!” He cried out, “We’re here.” “Move it! We need to go!” He called out to the, shoveling them into the next to last pod and climbing in himself after. He sealed the door and smacked the launch. “Buckle up!” Roy was wiping the sweat from his head, panicking as he bit his tounge and winced, “Who is attacking us?! Why would they do this?!” “I don’t know.” Kasper replied as the pod launched from the ship, he watched as his ship, his pride and joy continued to be peppered with shots, plummeting towards the very surface they were dropping too. He felt his lip quiver and his heart sink, and then, the sight of that massive cruiser, it wasn’t mercenary, it wasn’t pirate, it was something much more advanced, and he just couldn’t help but speculate, and pry, searching for any answer, as to what the Hell was happening... Apperances Characters *Iyra Aldonia *Taylor McClellan *Eliae Aemon *Erinn Winters *Saelian Praxiun *Morkgul Rhoen *Connor Clark *Kasper Martial *Giles Boyd *Adam Lee *Abigail Mangjeol *Lance Shaw *Quell Satch *Kiara Espinoza *Roy Albrighton *Olassia Amore Locations *Outer Rim **Numia Vessels *MSV Aetherius Category:COSG Category:Chronicles of a Silent Galaxy Category:Articles by WolfOfTheEast Category:WolfOfTheEast Category:Stories Category:Chapters